Sunday, October 07, 2018

R's Day USA 2018 at Autoclub Speedway

R's Day USA 2018 was on October 6, 2018 at Autoclub Speedway in Fontana, California. The last two years were at Laguna Seca, but this year the event was a little closer to home( NO NOISE RESTRICTIONS). The R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R that I drove at the event, is the same one I have drove for the last two events. 2016. 2017. Same car I drove at Hoonigan.
Changes from last time. Bluecar Prep

Nismo R-Tune (Ohlins Flag R) coilovers. I managed to find a used set for a decent price, and they were worth every penny

GK Tech adjustable upper control arms

Brake ducts (unknown maker,a Yahoo purchase)

Kudos Motorsport 1250cc long nose injectors

Nistune ECU

Alignment and ride height adjustment

Royal Purple 10-60 XRP

R's Day this year was part of a Speedventures event, we just made up our own run group. Its always good to see as many GT-R on track as there were here. Plus the venue had room for plenty of vendors, along with a car show area. I just heard about those last two things, as I was with the car most of the day. The way I like it.

The first session, best lap was a 2.00 which was 6th fastest, and fastest heritage car. With the suspension compression and rebound set about 1/2 way, the car was a bit floaty, and not really so confident into the banked turn. Also the car didn't want to take throttle in the top of 4th, or 5th gear. So it was just coasting along at around 110-115 mph. The brake pedal was long into turn 3 (slow corner off bank), which felt odd at first because then it came back solid. I figured out later, that I was getting brake pad knockback.

The second session, I did a few changes to the car. Dropped the rear tire pressure down a few psi. Set the suspension a few clicks harder in compression and rebound. In my head for the long pedal, I was going to tap the brakes before 3, and hopefully that would work. On the out lap, a car hit a tire barrier, so the red flag was flown, and we all came to a stop on track. Back to the pits, and wait for the track to clear. Unfortunately just about our whole session was taken up by the cleanup. It happens, more session in the day. After this session, I spent a little time on the computer. Making sure all the speed limiters, the MAF limiters were off. Also added a little fuel, and took some timing out of the Nistune ECU. This all worked as I found out in the next session, as I could give it full throttle in 4th and 5th gear.

R's Day had setup a separate time attack session called King of Kaiju.It turns out my 2.00 had qualified me to be included. This was a fun session. I had a chance to chase a few R35 GT-R, and ran a best of 1.56.7. We had two more sessions later in the day, but I was pretty spent at the 1:56. I took a customer on a ride in the 4th session, and our sales manager Brian on a ride in the 5th session.